The ONS said: “Long-term sickness, ageing of the resident population and net migration for reasons other than work each may have been factors that contributed to a higher population outside of the labour force.”
Even as living standards have, on average, increased in the 2020s, GDP per head remained below pre-pandemic levels at the end of June following an in-year slump.
GDP per head suffered a dramatic drop during Covid before recovering only weakly, leaving it vulnerable to falling below pre-pandemic levels.
The ONS’s findings suggest economic growth is being fuelled by more people arriving, not because of improvements in productivity. It means there is little more to go around on a per-household basis than before the pandemic.
The findings come as immigration once again becomes a top concern for voters, with 45pc of Britons saying it is among the most important issues facing the country.
Sentiment is now on a par with just after the EU referendum in 2016 and means immigration is the second-most cited concern after the economy.
Worries about immigration had been in decline since Brexit and only started rising consistently again from autumn 2022.